Ten: The Sword Sees Only Me

"Ah, what a good child."

Sheng Ningyu swept a glance over the young Master Yuan, her eyes filled with even deeper maternal affection. She had already sorted out the relationships. The young master before her was the youngest son of Yuan Daojun and the biological younger brother of Yuan Bushu. She had met him before, and his name was—what was it? Oh, right, it seemed to be, uh, "Little Master Yuan the Second"...?

Sheng Ningyu paused for a moment and skipped over that detail. In short, while that old geezer Yuan Daojun had a fiery temper, barely passed for human, and never listened to a word anyone said, his sons were all exceptionally fine. She hadn't expected Yuan Bushu to be married; she had never met his wife, Xiang Bieyun, but if she could be loved by such a straightforward, clear-hearted friend who couldn't tolerate a single grain of sand in his eyes, she must be a... very patient young lady.

She really ought to send a congratulatory gift.

Sheng Ningyu’s thoughts wandered for a moment, and by the time she regained her focus, the situation had grown increasingly tense.

"This is hardly the way the Chu family treats their guests," the young Master Yuan said, his face cold. Even with his baby fat, he possessed a touch of his elder brother Yuan Bushu’s icy severity. "Since that is the case, pray excuse me, I shall not stay."

"Ha, ridiculous! Do you think our Chu family head is short of medical cultivators? It was merely out of pity that we offered help along the way. Since you in the Yunwang Palace are so ungrateful, don't blame the Chu family for disregarding our families' long-standing friendship!"

*Whoa.*

*Fight! Fight!*

Sheng Ningyu watched with great interest, not forgetting to tug on Xie Qianjing’s sleeve and whisper into his ear, "You can leave first."

Xie Qianjing curled his lips, his tone gentle: "The young Master Yuan is indeed youthful and charming, in the prime of his years. It is no wonder you, fellow Daoist, wish to drive me away early."

Sheng Ningyu: "..."

He sounded more like he was saying "companion" than "fellow Daoist." Was he still acting, or was he being snide again?

Seeing the surrounding Yunwang Palace medical cultivators casting strange looks at her, Sheng Ningyu immediately put on a sincere, fake smile. Just as she was about to add something, she saw a young girl behind the young Master Yuan suddenly stiffen. As the girl abruptly raised her head, her eyes turned fierce, and she lunged straight at him!

Her face was covered in cracks like a shattered ceramic vase, and her skin had turned a sickly, rigid shade of blue. It was exactly the same as the four corpses Sheng Ningyu had seen the day she woke up and prepared to leave the Mitian Realm!

"Watch out!"

Sheng Ningyu shouted immediately. Before anyone else could react, she pushed the young Master Yuan aside, spun to avoid the attack herself, snatched a tree branch from the ground, and blocked the onslaught without hesitation. Fortunately, the Chu family was already in chaos, and no one bothered to investigate how she knew sword techniques.

"It’s a Puppet Barrier! This young girl has been struck by a Puppet Barrier!"

The Puppet Barrier truly lived up to its notoriety. A wisp of red mist, like an arrow piercing the clouds, did not dissipate even when blocked; instead, it transformed into eleven fine, dense threads that darted wildly through the air. For a moment, even Sheng Ningyu found it tricky.

Amidst the chaos, Chu Le was the first to react, shouting, "Do not lose your footing! Those with talismans, use them! Those without, use sword qi to defend!"

As soon as he spoke, the Chu family retainers seemed to snap to attention, tossing talismans everywhere as if they were scattering spirit money at a funeral.

*So wealthy.* It seemed the East Sea Chu family had grown increasingly prosperous over the years.

Sheng Ningyu sighed inwardly and turned her head. "Are talismans actually useful against this stuff?"

The young Master Yuan, while shielding the younger disciples behind him and feeding a Heart-Clearing Pill to the girl, replied in a flustered state, "Naturally, they are useful! These are talismans the East Sea Chu family commissioned specifically to counter the Puppet Barrier!"

Sheng Ningyu glanced at them, her brow furrowing imperceptibly. Why did the spirit patterns on these talismans look so familiar?

Before she could examine them closely, the battle had already ended. After all, there was strength in numbers. Even if the Puppet Barrier was difficult to break, it scattered under the barrage of Chu Le’s overflowing talismans.

After eliminating the last thread, Chu Le pulled back his hand, clasped it behind his back, and raised his chin proudly. "Nothing more than that."

A reckless youth, unburdened by the world. Sheng Ningyu remembered something and lowered her head with a smile. She didn't notice that Xie Qianjing behind her had been silent for a long time.

The sword cultivators under Chu Le’s command were busy heaping praise upon him, but when he glanced sideways, he saw that the people from the Yunwang Palace remained completely unresponsive. Like a bucket of cold water poured over him, Chu Le suddenly felt bored.

He stepped forward impatiently, standing before the young Master Yuan, his peripheral vision fixed on Sheng Ningyu. "We saved you, yet you don't even offer a word of thanks? Is this the etiquette of the Lingheng Yuan family?"

Sheng Ningyu felt something was wrong. While she was pondering, she suddenly noticed a person behind Chu Le keeping their head bowed.

*Something is off!*

Sheng Ningyu had nothing in her hand. Her heart sank, but she saw that the person had already lunged toward Chu Le. At this moment, verbal warnings were useless.

There were many ways to resolve this. The sword cultivators behind Chu Le, the talismans on Chu Le himself, the young Master Yuan nearby—none would stand idly by. And she... she didn't even have a sword.

Sheng Ningyu thought, *I don't need to intervene.* The root of her predicament might even be tied to the Chu family.

In a flash of lightning, she analyzed the benefits with chilling clarity. Sheng Ningyu hesitated no longer and struck with ferocity.

With no sword in hand, she used her right hand as the blade!

In an instant, the forest went silent. There was no wind in the mountains, not even the chirping of insects or birds. It was as if time had frozen at that moment.

—The fourth form of the Nine-Fold Sword: Stillness.

This had once been Sheng Ningyu’s least favorite technique. What was so good about "stillness"? She loved the bustle, the flowers in full bloom. She was always running around, accompanied by friends in every land, sharing drinks and laughter—that was what it meant to be alive in this world.

But after sixty years alone in a coffin, "stillness" was all Sheng Ningyu had known. Those joys, sorrows, the splendor of the mortal world, the boundless crowds—she could see none of it. Darkness without end, like living in a cage. No wind, no rain, no sound, no scent, no color, no moon, no light. Only herself.

Sheng Ningyu concentrated all the remaining spiritual energy she had gathered along the way into her fingertips. She slowly raised her hand, her gaze tracking down her right arm until it landed on her hand. This was the first time since waking up that she had looked at her right hand earnestly, without any emotion.

The scars wound like writhing leeches; the bloodstains were deep and unhealed; the bones protruded, sharp and craggy, much like her current circumstances. A moon fallen into a mire, with no idea of the path ahead.

*But.*

*I can still hold a sword.*

Sheng Ningyu smiled abruptly. As she moved, the time that had seemed frozen began to flow once more, and the earth started to tremble. As Sheng Ningyu spun and landed lightly beside the person possessed by the puppet, her fingertips flickered. An invisible sword qi tore through the air, striking the vital point—

The person collapsed instantly.

To the eyes of others, it was merely a silent gust of wind that had swirled past, and the person had fallen. Only those standing nearby could grasp a hint of the underlying technique.

"You, you—"

Chu Le’s lips trembled for a long time. Ignoring his own retainer who had been struck, he took another few steps forward. "That move you just used, what was it called? Is it a sword technique?"

The Chu family members behind him hesitated to speak. *Young Master Le is... he is practically standing on the side of the Yunwang Palace! Is that ugly woman really so interesting?*

"No. I told you before, I am a music cultivator."

Sheng Ningyu tucked her right hand into her sleeve and raised her left, casually plucking two pear blossoms that were drifting through the air in front of Chu Le. Chu Le saw those slender fingers flick a flower in front of him, and as he followed the line of her fingers, all he saw was her back.

As she turned, she laughed languidly: "As for that move just now—it is a family-inherited grappling technique called 'Impoliteness,' specifically meant for dealing with mountain spirits who don't know any manners."

Her previous words seemed to have become boomerangs. Chu Le’s face turned bright red, and he stammered for a long time. Just when everyone thought this young, hot-headed master would surely fly into a rage, they heard him mutter bashfully, "Thank you."

*Hiss!*

Both the Chu family and the Yunwang Palace were stunned, their jaws hitting the floor.

However, Sheng Ningyu didn't care at all. She walked over to the young Master Yuan and squatted down, waving the flower in her hand in front of the weeping little girl. The girl was young, appearing to be only thirteen or fourteen. Having just been possessed by the Puppet Barrier, she was still in a state of terror. In the world of sword cultivation, unless they were old monsters with unique tastes, most people fixed their appearance to their youthful years in their twenties. This one, however, was a true child.

Sheng Ningyu looked at those teary, round eyes, as if seeing a frightened, pitiful little animal, and her heart softened further. She spun the flower between her fingertips: "Look, this flower fell when I was... performing my move. Is it pretty?"

The pear blossom was beautifully shaped. Although one petal was missing, it was infinitely more beautiful than the red mist from before. The girl’s gaze was involuntarily drawn to it, and a small hole was punched through the fog in her mind, letting in a shallow light.

She nodded with a muffled, tearful voice: "Pretty."

"Do you like it?"

The girl was startled. She instinctively looked at the young Master Yuan, and seeing him nod slightly, she nodded at Sheng Ningyu, stumbling over her words: "I like—I like it."

"Then it's yours."

Sheng Ningyu placed the pear blossom into the girl's palm. "But since you've accepted such a beautiful flower from me, you're not allowed to think about what just happened anymore. If the flower knew it couldn't even compare to that broken mist, it would be very angry."

Hearing Sheng Ningyu describe the terrifying Puppet Barrier in such a way, the girl first shrank back, then couldn't help but curl her lips into a smile, breaking into laughter through her tears: "Okay! I promise you, Sister!"

Seeing her youthful cuteness, Sheng Ningyu couldn't help but laugh as well. She pushed herself up by her knees and met the gaze of Xie Qianjing, who had been watching her quietly. When he saw her look back, he offered a faint smile and immediately looked away.

*What is it you can't just say directly?*

Sheng Ningyu felt puzzled. Before she could ask, another stifled voice reached her ears.

"—That flower clearly fell right in front of me. Why didn't you give it to me?"

Chu Le strode toward Sheng Ningyu and held out his hand: "That’s my flower!"

Sheng Ningyu glanced at him sideways: "No."

The more she refused, the more Chu Le insisted: "Why!"

Sheng Ningyu stopped in her tracks and looked at him coldly: "Because I don't know the proper manners."

Chu Le was choked into silence again: "You—!"

The people around them couldn't help but chuckle. Chu Le clenched his fists, ready to say more, when a voice rose from the forest behind them.

"Is this why you're late to return—to entangle yourself with these lowly people in this wilderness?"

The smile on Sheng Ningyu’s lips froze instantly, and her pupils constricted sharply.

*I'm dead!*

She shifted her stance, moved quickly to the back, grabbed Xie Qianjing’s arm, stooped down slightly, and hid behind the disciples of the Yunwang Palace.

Xie Qianjing tilted his head, his tone airy and without the slightest sense of urgency: "Why is Fellow Daoist Sheng so flustered?"

Sheng Ningyu gritted her teeth, pinched his arm, and squeezed two words from her throat: "Shut up!"

She would recognize that voice even if it were reduced to ashes!

The person who had spoken was clearly the current head of the East Sea Chu family, her fiancé, and perhaps one of the culprits behind her being trapped in that coffin—

Chu Changan!